Rookies, Veterans Shine In Wild Michigan Test Race

When the lobby for the first offseason test race opened on Wednesday night, the anticipation was high among the viewers, the drivers, and the league administrators alike. It was the beginning of a new season and it was the first real test for using tire sets in iSCAR competition. Alternatively, this was a great chance for the rookie drivers to show what they could do behind the wheel. A total of 40 drivers were on the entry list, all of which started the event. Colton Zimmer grabbed the pole in the 5 minute qualifying session with Lacy Kuehl, another rookie driver, joining him on the front row. The race wouldn’t start without chaos though as a stackup caused by the #75 Chevrolet of Julian Ricci caused the #69 of Frank DeAngelis to get rear ended and turned around, bringing out the caution before they even made a lap. A litany of cautions early slowed the race until they got around the halfway point, when they got some green flag laps into the books. Pole sitter Colton Zimmer, William Schmitt, Liam Sheen, and others battled hard throughout the race’s halfway point before a caution for Glen Bundren Jr. slowed things down once again. They went back to green at lap 32 for a half a lap before the biggest incident of the day occured. William Schmitt, trying to break the draft and then subsequently block, doored the #95 Sim Performance Group Toyota Tundra of Nick Miller down into the grass. He couldn‘t get the truck slowed down in time and cleaned out Frank DeAngelis, who went into a series of barrel rolls. A late restart with three to go proved to be crucial for the Basen Racen teammates of Colton Zimmer and Thomas Lloyd. They coordinated the restart to perfection and Lloyd pushed Zimmer to a commanding lead before fading back to 6th at the finish of the race. Zimmer would take the race win, leading an eye-opening 31 laps out of the 45 laps run in the event. Of the top six finishers, five of them were rookie drivers.

Colton Zimmer takes the checkered flag at Michigan, holding off the #3 of Latham Joiner. Also pictured: Kohl Williams, Michael Rosero, Aaron Tribble, Thomas Lloyd, Dominick Howe

Below are links to videos relevant to this news report.

https://twitter.com/iscar_iracing/status/1308997429786705923?s=20

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